Great Endings: Great Expectations

I took her hand in mind, and we went out of the ruined place; and as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw no shadow of parting from her.

Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (1861) 

Sunday Funnies and Arts

As always, click to enlarge...

Thanks to PWALLY for the steering wheel!...

HealthMatters and the Beveridge single-payer model...


PHOTO GALLERY
A single leaf...


Peace on earth...


Old time holiday train...


Hilliard Bridge winter...


Peace...


FROM THE JUKEBOX
Did he ever return? Here's the true story of man named Charlie...

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down...

Good Will To Men

Father Urban, and perhaps Wilf and Brother Harold, too, sensed the rare peace now reigning among them, but Jack rejoiced in it visibly. Still, a moment later, it was Jack who broke the spell. "You know, Urban, I don't feel right about those animals," he said -- not, Father Urban knew, to be critical but just to be saying something. For a moment, they had all been lifted up, and this was Jack's way of letting them lightly back down to earth, where they had to live. "I've always understood that what heat there was at Bethlehem came from the animals. By rights, they should be closer to the Holy Family. Of course, I realize that's not possible in this case."

Father Urban looked over at the tree, at the hamper of food and liquor there. "Let's open one of Billy's bottles," he said.

"A Couple Of Nights Before Christmas," Morte D'Urban, J. F. Powers (1963)

And Judy, of course...

Boob Bob Redux

During the BP Oil Catastrophe last summer, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal insisted that the construction of artificial sand berms was a sure-fire means of containing the spill. Government and independent scientists objected: No underlying science supported the project, it would expend money and resources better used elsewhere, the berms couldn't possibly be built in time to do any good, and they might well be counterproductive. Just federal bureaucrats getting in the way of state leadership, Jindal bawled, and amidst the general caterwauling to Do Something Anything, the government reversed its position and allowed Jindal's vanity project to proceed.

Well, as Rachel Maddow reports, it turns out the Obama administrations concerns were justified. The berms, reported a bipartisan commission, were of no use but did cost a lot of money (and, incidentally, were a gold mine for Louisiana dredging interests; this was really little more than Jindal acting as a bagman for special interests). Watch:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Great Endings: For Whom The Bell Tolls

He was waiting until the officer reached the sunlit place where the first trees of the pine forest joined the green slope of the meadow. He could feel his heart beating against the pine needle floor of the forest.

Ernest Hemingway, For Whom The Bell Tolls (1940)

Lest We Forget Joe Strummer

August 21, 1952-December 22, 2002

All Things Must Pass

I began Citizen K. three years ago because I wanted to write about whatever I wanted to write about. I have made some wonderful friends in the process, and have enjoyed every minute of it. I've also learned and, I trust, honed my writing skills.

In the past several months, I've discovered something that I want to write about in particular. So, in the next couple of weeks, I'll be transitioning my efforts from Citizen K. to Health Matters, which I hope will serve as a forum for reasoned discourse about health care, ranging from policy to specific issues such as public health, health technology, health literacy, compensation, and overtreatment. In particular, I want to explore the health care systems of other nations with the idea of learning from them, something that Americans resist to near pathological degree. I invite you to join me.

Citizen K. will be around until the first of the year. Whatever you may have learned from me pales compared to what I have learned from you.